I wouldn't say "to blend in" although I don't think that's wrong either. The stated goals are to emphasize that the COJCOLDS believe in and worship Jesus Christ, and are a "Christ centered religion." There's definitely some unity goals here to be more accepted as Christian, but they also really believe that the name of the church was literally set by Jesus Christ, and that He (Jesus) is inspiring the current leadership to restore the God-given name.
So there are a handful of factors/motivation at play, but yes a huge goal is to brand themselves more as Christian.
My perception is that they don't want to "blend in" to the point that there's no distinction, but they want acceptance under the umbrella of Christianity. Most other groups under Christianity reject LDS doctrine as heresy, LDS church says "we are Christians though". I'm not trying to project an opinion about who is correct, just trying to describe what I think is going on.
I believe not accepting the divinity of Christ in the trinity is the stumbling block. Same with Muslims, who misunderstand the trinity to mean three Gods.
Characterizing it as 'misunderstanding' is disingenous, we just don't believe it stands up to scrutiny. Any inquiries into the nature of the trinity result in the trinitarian doing one of two things: collapsing into obvious polytheism, or claiming their doctrine is incomprehensible and therefore inscruitable, neither of which are satisfying answers. Many Catholics in particular will in fact fall into what their church considers various heresies in trying to wrap their heads around what they claim to believe.
They/we do accept the divinity of Christ, we just don’t accept the Nicean creed version of the Trinity.
That version of the Trinity wasn’t/isn’t universal and other accepted Christian churches that don’t follow the Nicean creed - something shared with Jehovahs Witnesses.
I don't think the church cares about blending with evangelicals, more that they don't want entities that consider themselves adversarial to the church controlling the image the church projects.
Evangelicals consistently consider the LDS/Mormon faith a danger to their version of Christianity- and therefore seek to label it unchristian to poison the well.
Allowing that counter-messaging to percolate by not embracing their actual name that starts "Church of Jesus Christ," (at the very beginnings was called "Church of Christ," though as you can imagine that led to differentiation issues.[0]) became problematic as the "Mormons aren't Christian" messaging became more and more emphatic from its rivals.
To be fair, others label the LDS as "unChristian" as well, with solid reasoning. For example, the Catholic Church rejects LDS baptism as invalid. That alone makes them a non-Christian. For purposes of marriage between an LDS member and a Catholic, that is a "Disparity of Cult" case that you would also see with a Muslim or Hindu.
LDS profess Christ, to be sure, and they adhere to OT/NT conservative values, and outwardly seem like nice Christian people. But they also embrace a "new Gospel" with extra books beyond the Christian canon that change the whole message. And, if you pay attention to their terminology while they speak at length, you may eventually realize that the LDS use words that have completely different meanings from the ways other Christians use words. If you've changed the underlying definitions and then speak in the same way, you're saying completely different things to the in-group without outsiders knowing the difference.
The LDS sect is fundamentally "henotheistic" rather than mono- or poly-. They literally believe that Jesus and God the Father are/were separate celestial gods, and they literally believe that every man can become a god of his own celestial kingdom, with a minimum of one celestial wife and celestial children to accompany them for the rest of eternity. They've taken major features of Judaic Temple worship, mixed in a good deal of Freemasonry, and come up with something that is far beyond Christianity as any Christian knows it.
There is additional doctrine, beyond question. It is a church that is open to further revelation equal to that which came from biblical apostles.
There is, however, nothing incompatible with Christian worship prior to the Nicean creed. Definitely post-Nicean it is a heretical sect vs mainline Christianity, but so is all of non-Catholic/Orthodox Christianity on some point or another if you cite the Catholics as the authority, if only on the issue of who's in charge.
There is plenty in the Bible to support a henotheistic view of Godhood, so it isn't extra-Biblical/Christian, just not the enforced POV post-Nicea.
I wouldn't say "to blend in" although I don't think that's wrong either. The stated goals are to emphasize that the COJCOLDS believe in and worship Jesus Christ, and are a "Christ centered religion." There's definitely some unity goals here to be more accepted as Christian, but they also really believe that the name of the church was literally set by Jesus Christ, and that He (Jesus) is inspiring the current leadership to restore the God-given name.
So there are a handful of factors/motivation at play, but yes a huge goal is to brand themselves more as Christian.
My perception is that they don't want to "blend in" to the point that there's no distinction, but they want acceptance under the umbrella of Christianity. Most other groups under Christianity reject LDS doctrine as heresy, LDS church says "we are Christians though". I'm not trying to project an opinion about who is correct, just trying to describe what I think is going on.
I believe not accepting the divinity of Christ in the trinity is the stumbling block. Same with Muslims, who misunderstand the trinity to mean three Gods.
Characterizing it as 'misunderstanding' is disingenous, we just don't believe it stands up to scrutiny. Any inquiries into the nature of the trinity result in the trinitarian doing one of two things: collapsing into obvious polytheism, or claiming their doctrine is incomprehensible and therefore inscruitable, neither of which are satisfying answers. Many Catholics in particular will in fact fall into what their church considers various heresies in trying to wrap their heads around what they claim to believe.
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They/we do accept the divinity of Christ, we just don’t accept the Nicean creed version of the Trinity.
That version of the Trinity wasn’t/isn’t universal and other accepted Christian churches that don’t follow the Nicean creed - something shared with Jehovahs Witnesses.
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The whole "we can progress to become gods" thing is a stumbling block to "normal" Christianity, too. As is the "these other books are also scripture".
I don't think the church cares about blending with evangelicals, more that they don't want entities that consider themselves adversarial to the church controlling the image the church projects.
Evangelicals consistently consider the LDS/Mormon faith a danger to their version of Christianity- and therefore seek to label it unchristian to poison the well.
Allowing that counter-messaging to percolate by not embracing their actual name that starts "Church of Jesus Christ," (at the very beginnings was called "Church of Christ," though as you can imagine that led to differentiation issues.[0]) became problematic as the "Mormons aren't Christian" messaging became more and more emphatic from its rivals.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/nam...
To be fair, others label the LDS as "unChristian" as well, with solid reasoning. For example, the Catholic Church rejects LDS baptism as invalid. That alone makes them a non-Christian. For purposes of marriage between an LDS member and a Catholic, that is a "Disparity of Cult" case that you would also see with a Muslim or Hindu.
LDS profess Christ, to be sure, and they adhere to OT/NT conservative values, and outwardly seem like nice Christian people. But they also embrace a "new Gospel" with extra books beyond the Christian canon that change the whole message. And, if you pay attention to their terminology while they speak at length, you may eventually realize that the LDS use words that have completely different meanings from the ways other Christians use words. If you've changed the underlying definitions and then speak in the same way, you're saying completely different things to the in-group without outsiders knowing the difference.
The LDS sect is fundamentally "henotheistic" rather than mono- or poly-. They literally believe that Jesus and God the Father are/were separate celestial gods, and they literally believe that every man can become a god of his own celestial kingdom, with a minimum of one celestial wife and celestial children to accompany them for the rest of eternity. They've taken major features of Judaic Temple worship, mixed in a good deal of Freemasonry, and come up with something that is far beyond Christianity as any Christian knows it.
There is additional doctrine, beyond question. It is a church that is open to further revelation equal to that which came from biblical apostles.
There is, however, nothing incompatible with Christian worship prior to the Nicean creed. Definitely post-Nicean it is a heretical sect vs mainline Christianity, but so is all of non-Catholic/Orthodox Christianity on some point or another if you cite the Catholics as the authority, if only on the issue of who's in charge.
There is plenty in the Bible to support a henotheistic view of Godhood, so it isn't extra-Biblical/Christian, just not the enforced POV post-Nicea.
7 replies →